El Al air hostess dies after catching measles from passenger on New York flight

AN El Al flight attendant who contracted measles from a passenger on board a plane has died.

Rotem Amitai, 43, fell ill on the flight from New York to Tel Aviv in April before being rushed to hospital in Israel.

She suffered a severe deterioration in her condition and fell into a coma after sustaining brain damage, reports say.

The mum-of-three then died early on Tuesday – four months after first falling ill on the plane.

NEWARK, NJ - AUG 3: An Israeli EL AL airplane is towed past a United Airlines airplane in front of the skyline of New York City at Newark Liberty Airport on August 3, 2019 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images) (Image: GETTY)

The airline said in a statement: "El Al bows its head in mourning following the death of one of the company’s flight crew.

“Once the case became known, the company worked to vaccinate all the company’s air crews.

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An 18-month-old toddler and an 82-year-old woman had died from the disease in Jerusalem at the end of last year.

The sudden outbreak in Israel, with the country recording more than 4,000 cases of measles between July 2018 and last month, is said to be mostly centred on the ultra-Orthodox community, where vaccination rates are typically lower than in the rest of the population.